


Rouge

by MeltedIceAngel



Series: Humility [2]
Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: Daycare, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Jealousy, Kids bringing together parents, M/M, No character bashing, you know how it goes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27375523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeltedIceAngel/pseuds/MeltedIceAngel
Summary: Sissi made her way out onto the playground and halted.Why, out of all the babies that happened to be out, did her daughter have to pick Ulrich’s son to play with?Esmee was hiding behind her hands with a big, cheesing smile before popping out from behind them with a loud, “Peek-a-boo!” Ulrich’s son, whatever his name was, was beside himself with glee each time. Even if he startled, it was always followed with a loud, cackling laugh.“Are you Ms. Elisabeth?” A tiny voice asked. Ms. Elisabeth? No one had ever been that formal with her in all her--Oh. It was Ulrich’s daughter.
Relationships: Odd Della Robbia & Sissi Delmas, Odd Della Robbia/Ulrich Stern, Sissi Delmas/Hervé Pichon
Series: Humility [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1999603
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Rouge

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I'm always too rough on Sissi in my stories, so this series is my attempt to make up for it.

Sissi came to pick up Esmee an hour and a half before she and Herve usually arrived, leaving time sitting just shy of three-thirty. That should have been enough time for them to have eaten the majority of their snack, and Sissi supposed that whatever was left, she could pack up and bring home. 

She stepped into Esmee’s room and was surprised to see it empty. The remains of snack were littered on the table, but the coats usually hung up were missing. One look out the huge, floor to ceiling windows and Sissi could see why. 

She made her way out onto the playground and halted. It wasn’t tough to spot Esmee. To find her, one only had to look for the babies or a swing. Since there were no swings on the playground, Sissi’s eyes immediately caught on her daughter sitting just outside the playground section made exclusively for young babies. 

It was which baby she happened to be playing with that gave Sissi pause. Why, out of _all_ the babies that happened to be out, did Esmee have to pick Ulrich’s son to play with?

Esmee was hiding behind her hands with a big, cheesing smile before popping out from behind them with a loud, “Peek-a-boo!” Ulrich’s son, whatever his name was, was beside himself with glee each time. Even if he startled, it was always followed with a loud, cackling laugh. 

“Are you Ms. Elisabeth?” A tiny voice asked. Ms. Elisabeth? No one had ever been that formal with her in all her--Oh. It was Ulrich’s daughter. Where was Esmee’s teacher?

“Uhm, yes?” Sissi responded. Ulrich’s daughter really had a blinding smile, and Sissi had no idea why it was being directed toward her. 

“I remember you,” The girl said, and Sissi tried to make her hum sound interested. As much as she knew it wasn’t either child’s fault who Sissi had fallen for, it was very hard to look at them knowing who they belonged to; blood or not. 

“I remember you, too,” Sissi responded. When the girl didn’t move to leave, Sissi began to wonder why no one had seen her arrive to pick up Esmee. 

“Daddy said I should take good care of Esmee because you were friends in school. Now I always make sure she’s safe!” The girl said with that God-forsaken smile, and Sissi tried really hard not to let a four-year-old’s sentiment choke her up. That was so unlike Ulrich to say; if anything, Sissi was surprised the girl hadn't started avoiding Esmee. 

“That’s nice of you,” Sissi said with a half-assed smile.

“Well, Mateo pooped in his pants, so Ms. Hocin is busy. Let me go get Esmee!” The girl bounded off toward where Esmee was still playing with Ulrich’s son. Man, she was direct. She still didn’t seem much like Ulrich, but who was Sissi to tell anymore?

“Esmee, mommy’s here!” The girl yelled, and Esmee’s head shot up to look at the door. 

“Mommy?” Esmee whispered, and Ulrich’s daughter nodded. The girl helped Esmee stand and even took the time to brush all the mulch and dirt off her dress. 

“Oh, you silly girl! You’ve got your dress all messy. Don’t worry, Eden is almost done cleaning it,” Oh, right. Eden. Sissi still thought the name was beautiful, and as time stretched, her personality revealed itself to fit just as well as her looks. 

“Mommy,” Esmee said, pointing at Sissi. Sissi waved and waited patiently until Eden was done cleaning Esmee’s dress.

“Say bye-bye, Ciel!” Eden said, using her own hand to help the baby wave.

“Bye-bye!” Esmee said, using her wrist to wave her hand side to side. 

“Mrs. Pinchon! I apologize,” A stout, happy-looking woman known as Ms. Hocin shouted as she ran over. “We had a bit of an accident. I see Ms. Eden here has got Esmee all set to go?” The woman asked.

“Yes, ma’am! I think she needs a wipe for her face,” Eden said after taking a close, critical look at Esmee. 

“Eden is very particular about Esmee,” Ms. Hocin laughed, grabbing a wipe and going to clean Esmee’s face. Eden wailed in a far less mature demeanor and reached for the wipe.

“I wanna do it,” Eden said, taking the wipe and diligently getting all of the leftover snack and dirt off. Sissi smiled bitterly; there was Ulrich. Hotheaded and independent. 

Once Eden determined that Esmee’s face was sufficiently clean, she ran to throw away the wipe before running back. She gave Esmee a hug and a pat on the head before saying, “Bye-bye, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye-bye!” Esmee waved at Eden, and just as they were about to head out, the assistant director opened the door.

“Eden!” She shouted, and Eden turned. Her face broke into the biggest grin as she took off. Sissi had really been preparing herself to see Ulrich, but instead, a shock of blonde ran out of the door and caught Eden mid-jump. 

“Daddy!” Eden yelled, wrapping her entire body around the one holding her. 

“Princess!” That oh-so-familiar voice said, and Sissi internally groaned as Odd’s face came into view. Right. These children had _two_ parents. She had forgotten. 

“Daddy, I took really good care of Esmee today!” Eden exclaimed, and before Odd had the chance to respond, she said, “And I drew a picture for you and Vati! And Ciel made a hand-print turkey. Oh, and we counted to ten in English, and we played in shaving cream!”

“Well, it sure does sound like you had a busy day!” Odd said. 

“Yeah,” Eden chuckled, laying her head in the crook of Odd’s neck. “Look, Ms. Elisabeth is here!”

“That she is!” Odd said, looking somehow genuinely excited to see Sissi. It made her feel like the ground below her was unsteady. Odd had _hated_ her in school, and yet here he was, smiling like he’d just seen a long lost friend. It made her almost feel guilty for forgetting that Ulrich wasn't a single parent. 

Daddy and Vati...Eden called Odd daddy, which meant it was _Odd_ that told Eden to look after Esmee. It was Odd that said they had been friends in school. It was Odd that got his daughter to address Sissi with a politeness level that still made her feel almost awkward with how little she’d heard it. 

Great, now she really felt guilty. 

“She’s shy,” Eden giggled when Sissi didn’t respond immediately. The smile slipped on Odd’s face, but it returned before Eden could see the difference. 

“Yes, Ms. Elisabeth is shy. Why don’t we let her and Esmee go home? Vati is waiting for us at Uncle Jeremie’s house!” Odd said, and Eden squealed and wiggled her way out of Odd’s grasp.

“Ms. Sophie, can we have my brother so we can go see Uncle Jeremie, please?” Eden said, clambering her way up onto the fence. 

“Eden, feet on the floor,” Ms. Sophie admonished. She hopped down and bashfully looked back at Odd, who with his crossed arms and raised eyebrows, looked somewhat intimidating. That didn't stop Eden from smiling with a timid laugh. “Ciel, look who’s here for you!” 

“Daddy, come surprise Ciel!” Eden said, waving Odd over. Sissi watched as Odd silently crouched over and hid behind the fence. It seemed dumb, in her opinion. There was no way even the babies didn’t see Odd hiding.

Even so, the moment Odd slowly popped his head over the railing and Ciel caught sight of him was...well, it was something Sissi wished she had with her own daughter. Ciel’s eyes lit up, and he smiled such a big, toothless grin. His little hands reached out and gripped at Odd’s still long hair, pulling it hard, but Odd only used it as momentum to pull himself close enough to give his son a kiss. 

“Let’s go, daddy!” Eden said, grabbing onto Odd’s pant leg and pulling with all the might of a four-year-old little girl. To Sissi’s astonishment, she actually got Odd to _stumble_. 

“I knew putting you in taekwondo was a bad idea,” Odd grumbled. 

The director came back outside and said, “Ulrich said you would be picking up the rest of this week, so I held off on all the papers for this week until you got here. I know you like to dress them based on the craft.” 

What? Sissi threw those papers away the second she got home. Why would Odd dress his children based on the craft for the day?

“Thank you! I don’t want to be that parent, but some clothes just really hold onto paint,” Odd chuckled, bending down to buckle Ciel in. At some point, Eden had come back over to play with Esmee, and Sissi realized she had no real reason to stick around. 

“Yes, sorry about that,” The director seemed genuinely put out by this. Odd waved her off as he stood. 

“No worries. Ulrich got the same shirt for five dollars the next day,” Odd said. Once he was all packed and ready to go, he turned and startled when he saw Sissi still standing there. “Eden, are you ready?”

“Yes, daddy,” Eden said, taking Esmee’s hand and looking up at Sissi. “I’ll make sure she makes it outside safely!”

Odd and Sissi looked at each other, and for the first time, the two of them shared a fond smile. 

“Well, off we go,” Odd said, motioning for Sissi to go first. With all the cargo Odd had, Sissi felt that he should have been the one to go first, but she took the invitation and walked back inside. She could have held the door open for him at least, but she didn’t think about it until after he’d already expertly shuffled his way in. 

“So, you’re going to Jeremie’s?” Sissi pondered aloud, and Odd nodded his head.

“Yeah. Ulrich usually takes Eden over so she can have some girl time with Aelita, but I don’t see them too much anymore,” Odd said. Sissi hummed and thought about this. It wasn’t that much of a surprise. Ulrich had known Jeremie since they were little kids. While they had all seemed super close at some point, Odd only seemed tied to Jeremie and Aelita by Ulrich toward the end of high school. 

“Not butt buddies with them anymore?” Sissi asked, and Odd chuckled half-heartedly. 

“I love them, but their lives are so focused on their work. I just can’t relate, I guess?” Odd said, looking fondly down at his children. 

“What is your work, anyway?” Sissi asked as Odd settled Ciel down to begin the long process of signing his children out. As much as Sissi loved getting scholarships for Esmee to attend, the signing in and signing out thing took far too long. 

“Well, you wouldn’t believe it, but the music thing didn’t pan out,” Odd said, and Sissi gasped.

“How could that happen? You were such a natural,” Sissi said, her voice dripping in sarcasm. Odd chuckled and moved on to signing Ciel out. 

“I’m a nurse, actually. That’s why I usually drop off, and Ulrich picks up. I work across the street at the hospital,” Odd said, pointing at the hospital that so happened to be the namesake of the daycare. 

“I didn’t think you had good enough grades to do anything like that,” Sissi said, taking up Odd’s spot to sign Esmee out. 

“I didn’t, but I needed a real job to adopt. I really busted my butt getting my degrees,” Odd said, and Sissi picked up on the plural form of degree. 

“Degrees? Like, more than one?” Sissi asked. 

“All of them in nursing, but yes. I had an LPN, RN, BSN, and now a master’s degree. I am truly everything Mrs. Hertz said I could never amount to,” Odd said, smiling smugly. 

“That’s...really good, Odd. I’m happy for you,” Sissi had to pull this so far up from the bottom of her soul, but she was glad she did. Odd looked so bashful yet so proud of himself that Sissi wondered if people said how incredible it was often enough. For someone to go from dead last in their class all the way to having a Masters in something like nursing? That took a lot of hard work.

“What about you?” Odd asked. By this point, both of them were free to go their separate ways, but Ciel had nodded off, and Eden and Esmee were happily playing, so Sissi didn’t feel the need to rush. 

“I don’t work,” Sissi responded. Odd nodded but didn’t say much in regards to this. That was forgiving in itself. Sissi had been expecting some sort of joke about her still being a leech. “What about Ulrich?”

Odd looked at her with genuine surprise this time. Sissi was about to ask what the look was for before Odd said, “You don’t watch football, do you?”

“No, why?” Sissi asked. Odd chuckled and shook his head.

“Ulrich’s on France’s national team,” Odd said, and oh, well, that made sense. She had never been able to come up with a reason why Odd and Ulrich stayed in France after graduating. 

“Vati’s friend’s son did the kick-off,” Eden piped up.

“Yes, he did. He did a very good job,” Odd said. 

“Ms. Elisabeth, you should come to one of my vati’s games! Uncle Jeremie and Aunt Lili are always working, so they can’t come,” Eden said, looking up expectantly at Sissi. She stumbled over what to say and looked at Odd. 

“I always have friend and family tickets,” Odd shrugged, pulling out his phone and typing something quickly. “Even if it’s just to give Esmee a new experience, you should come.”

Was Odd Della Robbia seriously asking Sissi to spend what would amount to an entire day with his family? Sissi used to have to grovel to go shopping with Aelita and Yumi. Now she was actually being invited to something?

“Are you sure?” Sissi could not believe she was really considering this. Odd nodded. 

“Put your number in. I’ll message you,” Odd said, handing Sissi his phone. Sissi took it and stared.

“This is an 11,” Sissi said. 

“Yes?” Odd said, looking at his phone curiously. 

“It’s the cheap one,” Sissi responded, putting her number in. She looked at the name Odd had typed in for her and startled a little. He hadn’t written Sissi; he’d put Elisabeth. 

“Yeah, well, when you have two kids and a husband that always seem to need something, you learn to compromise,” Odd said this while taking in the designer clothes on Sissi’s body and the cheaper, less likely to get ruined clothes on Esmee. 

“I suppose,” Sissi said, handing the phone back.

“Okay. Well, his next game is on Saturday. Eden, Ciel, my parents, and I usually meet up outside the stadium an hour early so Eden can play with the other kids. Ten-thirty? Sound good?” Odd asked. Sissi should’ve run it by Herve first, but she was still so shocked by the offer that she said the first thing that came to mind.

“Sounds good. Uhm, Ulrich?” Sissi asked. She couldn’t imagine Ulrich wanting her at his games, especially with how vehemently against it he had been in high school. 

“I already told him,” Odd said. He didn’t elaborate, but Sissi was pretty sure Ulrich couldn’t have been too upset considering Odd’s annoyingly put together look. 

“Okay. Esmee, do you want to go out with Eden on Saturday?” Sissi asked, and Esmee’s face lit up. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Esmee said, jumping up and down. Sissi smiled and nodded.

“See you at ten-thirty,” Odd said, lifting Ciel’s car seat up. It looked like that was the cue for her to get going as well, so she took Esmee’s hand and led her to the door. This time, Sissi held it open, so Odd didn’t have to struggle through. 

They parted ways, and once Esmee was buckled in, Sissi shut the door and stared as Odd did the same for Eden. 

“Della Robbia!” Sissi called, and Odd’s head shot up. “I like the hair. Looks less stupid without the dye.” 

“Thanks, but it wasn’t dyed!” Odd flipped his long blonde hair dramatically. Sissi hummed in a sarcastic acknowledgment of the statement before getting into her car. She took a centered breath and relaxed into the seat. She had always had a strange weight on her back whenever she thought of Ulrich and his friends. Even if it was just Odd pitying her, a large part of the weight had been lifted.

“Mommy?” Esmee said.

“Yes?” Sissi responded, looking back at Esmee in the rearview mirror. 

“Baby Shark,” Esmee said, very matter of fact. Sissi chuckled and plugged her phone in. Before Esmee could get too into her personal concert, Sissi had something to ask. 

“Esmee, who is your best friend?”

“Eden!” Esmee kicked her legs with the biggest smile. Sissi tried to stop her own from blossoming, but she couldn’t. Even if those kids weren’t hers, she could admit that Odd and Ulrich had done a damn good job with them so far. 

Sissi had always grown up believing she was special. That she deserved more because she was _Elisabeth Delmas._ As much as she loved her father, maybe being humble was the most important lesson that she missed. 

After all, Eden bent over backward for Esmee because she was raised by people who put her needs over their own. She knew what it meant even at just four-years-old to put others before herself. Even if Odd and Ulrich would have to fine-tune that to make sure she wasn’t taken advantage of in the future, it was still something light years ahead of where Sissi was. 

Sissi looked back at Esmee and wondered what she would grow up to be. Would she be like Eden, or would she be like Sissi? By age four, Sissi was pretty sure she was telling people to do things for her, not asking. 

It was a good thing Esmee had teachers and friends to teach her all the important stuff Sissi couldn’t figure out. 

“Baby Shark, _do, do, do, do, do!”_ Esmee sang, and Sissi smiled fondly. For all that she did wrong and all that she didn’t know, there was one thing in her life that made perfect sense.

Even if she couldn’t show it properly, she loved her little girl with all her heart. If giving her the best shot at life meant including Odd and Ulrich in it, then that’s what she would do. 

**Author's Note:**

> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/meltediceangel (helps pay for medical school)


End file.
